BS: Happy Birthday Concorde!

Subject: BS: Happy Birthday Concorde!
From: Phot
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 12:23 PM

40 years ago today Concorde 002 (The first British prototype) took to the skies. Jaw droppingly beautiful, elegant, and at the time an engineering marvel (Still pretty damm good today IMO).

I know she wasn't very enviromentally friendly (What man made machine is?) but you have to admit, she had style! And still looks fast standing still!

So Happy Birthday old girl, you're still queen of the skies, even if you retired before your time.

Wassail!! Chris

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Concorde!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 02:27 PM

She was indeed a BEAUTIFUL bird !

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Concorde!
From: Newport Boy
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 05:31 PM

I watched the first takeoff over my head from the almost-finished M5 Motorway, and also thought it was a marvellous and beautiful piece of engineering. I still think so, although it's demise revealed some basic faults.

Over the following week, a dozen of us on site discussed Concorde. Only two of us had been on an aircraft (both for work) - my first flight came the following year. We all accepted that Concorde was not for us, and agreed that it was a diversion from the main development of air travel, as the Brabazon had been 20 years earlier. Filton seemed to be unlucky back then, but got it right with the Airbus.

At least there's still a Concorde sitting at Filton. Anne (who suffers with claustrophobia) thought it looked more cramped than the Douglas DC9 on which we had our first flight.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Concorde!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 10:51 PM

I had the privilege of sitting in Jamaica Bay on my whitehall boat at the right time to watch the final flights of the Concorde into and from JFK. These included the final inbound and outbound commercial flights and the final arrival when she was deadheaded in to become a static exhibit at the Intrepid museum.

Every time she went over, she deserved the nickname we gave her: The dinosaur. No other plane sounded like her.

One time, I arrived from Albany and one was sitting at British Air's arrival terminal. I was amazed at how small she was in person compared to the mass transit planes around her.